Columnists
Girl power
A few weeks ago, the viral web brought about a fresh discussion about women in the workplace. I recognize that is a conversation that has been ongoing for eons. Then controversies were stirred by a Google employee over a memo about women in tech jobs and an anecdote from a male worker about his outrage over a brief encounter with a client who mistook him for a female colleague, and that conversation was provoked anew.
And then, as is the nature of the viral web, the conversation disappeared as quickly as it arrived.
In case you missed it, the Google memo essentially stated that a gender gap in the tech sector existed not because the tech sector is sexist, but because women are psychologically different than men, and that those differences make it difficult for women to enter and succeed in portions of the tech industry that are based on logical rather than aesthetic skills.
The anecdote came from a low-level manager whose boss was nagging him to push one of his female staffers to work faster. He didn’t understand it: she was smart, seemed on the ball, but was taking longer than everyone else to get things done.
Then, after a frustrating email exchange with a client who was being patronizing and second-guessing everything he suggested, the man realized he had been signing his emails with his female colleague’s signature. As an experiment, he sent an email with his own signature, stating he was taking over the account. Suddenly, the same advice was being taken at face value, the responses far more agreeable.
He continued the experiment, switching email signatures with his female colleague for two weeks. The result:
“I was in hell. Everything I asked or suggested was questioned. Clients I could do in my sleep were condescending. One asked if I was single,” Martin Schneider tweeted of the experience. “Nicole had the most productive week of her career. I realized the reason she took longer is bc she had to convince clients to respect her [sic].”
The thing I found remarkable was not only that this obviously conscientious man was surprised by the bias he discovered, but also by how blasé his female colleague was about it. To her, it was so commonplace as to be almost as difficult to identify as it was to their boss who insisted on hurrying her.
The conversation may have disappeared quickly, but it’s a good one to have. It seems every time feminism is brought up in the developed world it’s shrugged off as an extravagance. Women have good lives here. They are relatively safe, and decades of work have evened the playing field. Some go as far as to suggest that, in fact, men are the ones to require an evened playing field.
I recently had a conversation with an 11-year-old girl about possible professions for women. A girl, I said, could grow up to be a plumber as much as a teacher or a hairstylist. Her response: “I’ve never heard of a girl plumber!”
She’s right. It’s not easy for women to enter the trades, and that is because of the attitudes of modern employers, not a woman’s ability to do the job well. The playing field is very uneven.
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